Government fails in downsizing efforts

Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnamese Government has failed to downsize its
large staff, with the number of officials continuing to increase.

Leading a
National Assembly delegation supervising the administrative reforms from
2011-2016 to work with the Government on May 27, NA Deputy Chairman Uong Chu Luu
said that work to reduce the number of people on the State payroll had been
“very limited”.

“The
statistics say that it (number of public servants) is not decreasing,” he said.

The number of public servants nationwide was more
than 3.56 million by December 31, 2015, and climbed to more than 3.57 million
by February 1 this year.

Government officials’ wages also expanded by 5
trillion VND (222.2 million USD) in one year, from 405 trillion VND in 2015 to 410
trillion VND in 2016, Luu said.

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Affairs Minister Le Vinh Tan, on behalf of the Government, explained that new
administrative duties and establishing new district and communal units resulted
in the increase.

He also
noted that 11 localities employed more than the quotas given by the ministry,
resulting in a total of 7,951 extra officers by December 2016. The localities
included Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Binh Thuan,
Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Long An.

The
number of public servants at communal level and below, meanwhile, hit more than
1.9 million people by the end of last year.

A member of the NA supervision delegation, former
NA Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Phan Trung Ly said that few Governmental
agencies had managed to downsize. Most of the job cuts they reported were
officials who were going to retire anyway.

“Those
who can’t do their jobs, meanwhile, still get to stay in their roles,” Ly said.-VNA